Chip Berlet, a human rights activist, is co–author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford, 2000) and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash (South End Press, 1995). For more, go to www.chipberlet.info & www.researchforprogress.us.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Justice Sunday III v. Harry Potter

On Sunday, January 8, 2006, I had a choice between Justice Sunday III and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Perhaps this was a choice faced by other parents seeking to find something educational for their children to experience. My son is grown up now, but I thought about the lessons to be learned from both events.

Let me tell you what I learned when my wife and I attended the Harry Potter film.

• Certain actions are evil, but evil is not based on heredity or nationality.

• Sometimes we are called on to do things that we do not want to do (and even makes us unpopular), but that we should shoulder these responsibilities with good grace.

• Real heroes sometimes set aside their personal quest to help others in danger.

• We should welcome people from different cultures and nations into our midst.

• Friendship includes taking risks to support our friends and standing up for them in a crisis.

We also saw that young teenage boys are clueless about young teenage girls, but as parents, we already knew that was true.

About Me

As a teenager in the 1960s,
I joined the civil rights movement and helped run a church-based coffee house
in suburban New Jersey. Later I was active in the movement against the Vietnam
War. I dropped out of college to work in the underground and alternative press
and served on the board of the Underground Press Syndicate.